Frank Kingdon-Ward
Francis Kingdon-Ward, born Francis Kingdon Ward OBE, was an English botanist, explorer, plant collector and author. He published most of his books as Frank Kingdon-Ward and this hyphenated form of his name stuck, becoming the surname of his wives and two daughters. It also became a pen name for his sister Winifred Mary Ward by default.
Biography
Son of Harry Marshall Ward and Selina Mary Ward, née Kingdon; he went on around 25 expeditions over a period of nearly fifty years, exploring Tibet, North Western China, Myanmar and Assam. In Myanmar he met and conducted some research into forestry and plants in the country with native botanist Chit Ko Ko.Among his collections were the first viable seed of Meconopsis betonicifolia, Primula florindae and Rhododendron wardii, a yellow flowered species.
A species of Asian lizard, Pseudocalotes kingdonwardi, is named in his honor. He is also commemorated in Ward's trogon, Harpactes wardi.
He survived many accidents on his expeditions including hunger, extreme weather, slope slides and cliffhangers, becoming lost, roughing it with little shelter, altercations with indigenous Asians, and impalement. During an expedition in Assam, he was close to the epicentre of an earthquake on 15 August 1950.
In addition to his professional activities as a botanist, in the 1930s Kingdon-Ward also served as a spy for the British India Office. In 1935, Kingdon-Ward was arrested by Tibetans after he crossed the Sela pass into the Tawang tract despite being refused permission to do so by the Tibetan authorities who were then administering Tawang. Tibetans protested this violation of their border to the British mission then visiting Lhasa. Kingdon-Ward was quickly released, but this incident led the British to investigate the status of the border, and it was discovered that the entire Tawang tract had been ceded to British India by Tibet by the Simla Convention negotiated by Sir Henry McMahon with the Tibetans in 1914.
In 1923 he moved to Hatton Gore, a big house on the east side of Hatton Road, Hatton, London; the site of the house is now under the east end of London Heathrow Airport. He built there a big rockery looking like a bend in a river ravine in the Himalayas. He sold the house due to a loss that he made running a plant nursery business.
He was married twice, first to Florinda Norman-Thompson on 11 April 1923; later, to Jean Macklin, on 12 November 1947, to whom he remained married until his death.
Florinda Kingdon-Ward had a brief political career which included standing as a Liberal Party candidate for Parliament at the 1950 UK General Election in Lewes.
Even towards the end of his career he was still active, his greatest "swansong" plant was probably Lilium mackliniae, found jointly with his second wife after whom it is named. At age 68 he climbed to over 1,730–2,590 metres above sea level in the Ukhrul district of Manipur, India and was still discovering new species of plants on his last expedition in 1956, including Roscoea australis, the most southerly representative of its genus.
He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1952.
Frank Kingdon-Ward died on 8 April 1958 aged 72. He had suffered a stroke and went into a coma from which he never recovered. He was buried in the churchyard at Grantchester.
Published works
He wrote 25 books, mostly accounts of his expeditions. The titles, dates and publishers are as follows:- Shanghai Mercury Ltd. Shanghai
- Cambridge University Press
- In Farthest Burma Seeley Service and Co
- Mystery Rivers of Tibet Seeley Service and Co
- From China to Hkamti Long Edward Arnold and Co
- The Romance of Plant Hunting Edward Arnold and Co
- Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges Edward Arnold and Co
- Rhododendrons for Everyone The Gardener's Chronicle Ltd
- Plant Hunting on the Edge of the World Victor Gollancz
- Plant Hunting in the Wilds Figurehead
- The Loom of the East Martin Hopkinson Ltd
- A Plant Hunter in Tibet Jonathan Cape
- The Romance of Gardening Jonathan Cape
- Plant Hunter's Paradise Jonathan Cape
- Assam Adventure Jonathan Cape
- Modern Exploration Jonathan Cape
- About This Earth Jonathan Cape
- Commonsense Rock Gardening Jonathan Cape
- Burma's Icy Mountains Jonathan Cape
- Rhododendrons Latimer House
- Footsteps in Civilization Jonathan Cape
- Plant Hunter in Manipur Jonathan Cape
- Berried Treasure Ward Lock and Co. Ltd. London and Melbourne
- Return to the Irrawaddy Andrew Melrose
- Pilgrimage for Plants George C. Harrap and Co. Ltd